Born in 1931, I well could have said both statements at similar
ages. I suspect I have read every published word Lewis ever
wrote - many of them several times. In his book, SURPRISED BY
JOY, 1955, Lewis himself speaks of his conversion, and it was
that book, among others, that played an important part in my own
understanding and embrace of the Christian message. So it was
with great expectations and anticipation that I began this
volume.

The author, a professor of English at Elizabethtown College, has
written many articles on Lewis, as well as a book, PLANETS IN
PERIL, which studies Lewis's famous Ransom trilogy. He dwells
closely on Lewis's inner life, on the factors that influenced his
spiritual journey, and on the issues that commanded the attention
of his keen intellect along the way.

Lewis did not have a "Damascus Road" experience, of course; those
who have had one are fortunate. The rest of us must come to
Christ gradually, an unfolding (dare I say "evolutionary?")
process. For (Jack) Lewis it was to take a fifteen-year quest,
one that led him through strange pathways. Atheism in his youth
turned to materialism, mind-matter dualism and the occult, then
idealism and pantheism in the 1920s. In the summer of 1929, at
age 30, Lewis had a "mystical experience" while riding on a bus
(surely as prosaic a setting as one can conceive). In SURPRISED
BY JOY, he describes his subsequent decision to "enter in" in
these words: "In the Trinity term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted
that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the
most dejected and reluctant convert in all England."

Lewis's 1929 conversion experience was, of course, to theism, not
to Christianity. He began attending church worship services, but
only because he thought he ought to make some overt gesture
toward his new philosophical position. In 1929, his mind was
taking him where his heart was reluctant to follow. Two years of
his quest were to follow. David Downing describes these two years
in chapter eight, and does so powerfully. Even knowing the
result, I found myself caught up in the narrative, urging Lewis
on, almost like watching a baseball game television replay. Two
steps forward, one step back, and then, on September 28, 1931,
while riding in his brother's motorcycle sidecar to Whipsnade
zoo, it happened. In Lewis's own words, "I know very well when,
but hardly how, the final step was taken. I was driven to
Whipsnade one sunny morning. When we set out I did not believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and when we reached the zoo
I did. " David Downing describes his vision of this day in three
pages of inspired prose, and there, except for an epilogue, the
book ends. But the epilogue, it turns out, has perhaps the
strongest message of all.

In the epilogue, one more event in Lewis's life, as recorded by
Downing, must be mentioned, for it places a capstone on this
remarkable giant of a human being. Lewis was famous, of course,
for his imagination. His writings abound with ideas, figures of
speech, and stories seldom dreamed of by others. In July of 1963,
sick with what would be his last illness, he was in a coma.
Awakening, he asked for water. As his friend, Hooper, began to
draw it, Lewis suddenly sat up in bed, staring intently at
something across the room. He kept on looking, and then
exclaimed, several times, "Oh, I never imagined. I never
imagined." He then fell asleep with a rapturous expression on his
face.

I hope that, at the last breath, we will all have this to say.
Yes, this book is a "keeper." I recommend it highly to my ASA
colleagues.